Maine's Off Topic Thread -- Part 5 (Portland, Old Orchard Beach: wages, living, restaurants)

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by elston

Unless you're a lobsterman.

Indeed. That won't even pay the gas to go check the traps, I wouldn't think... let alone give the family any income.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by elston

Unless you're a lobsterman.

Good point.

[elston]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Good point.

I mean I would love to be able to buy fresh home grown tomatoes for $.59 cents a pound and blueberries for $1.00 a quart...but I would know that this would be at the expense of the farmer and his family....if the bottom falls out of the market for produce and other Maine products...it bodes ill for all of us.

[RMoore007]

This all gets me wondering. Do the lobstermen, blueberry and tomato farmers want us NOT to buy their stuff when it's so low? Does that help them? Or, if we do buy there stuff so low, should we not brag about it? Is that the message here. Not that FB was bragging, just telling us of his good fortune. I would think that the more people that buy stuff will increrase demand and supply will suffer therefore increasing prices.
I have noticed that lobster is still around $7.99 per pound around Dover. I know cause I just got back to ME and started looking at the prices again.

[elston]

Originally Posted by RMoore007

This all gets me wondering. Do the lobstermen, blueberry and tomato farmers want us NOT to buy their stuff when it's so low? Does that help them? Or, if we do buy there stuff so low, should we not brag about it? Is that the message here. Not that FB was bragging, just telling us of his good fortune. I would think that the more people that buy stuff will increrase demand and supply will suffer therefore increasing prices.
I have noticed that lobster is still around $7.99 per pound around Dover. I know cause I just got back to ME and started looking at the prices again.

If you misconstured or missed my point and thought I was advocating a boycott of produce....well you just missed my point entirely.

[Submariner]

I did not intend to make fun of the misfortune of lobstermen.

I have no idea of how much lobstermen normally have been getting at the pier.

Normally distributors and retails do mark-up a product before it gets to the customer.

We were at Capt Nicks yesterday and they wanted $24.99/lobster, we got the fish/chips instead. [I went in there thinking about a lobster roll but at 16.99, I reconsidered since I had recently heard an offer for lobster rolls at some little Nook & Cranny restaurant that we really like to visit]

Our buddy bought a great deal of lobster at the pier this week, maybe he got a great deal because he bought in bulk.

We saw the $24.99 price on one day, and then the following day we ate some and heard that it cost so little.

Personally I think that the middlemen and retailers are charging too much.

It appears that lobstermen are having a difficult time selling their wares via their normal retail system. I would think that more folks should be buying at the peir. So that lobstermen can charge what they need, to stay in business. While the system corrects itself.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by RMoore007

This all gets me wondering. Do the lobstermen, blueberry and tomato farmers want us NOT to buy their stuff when it's so low? Does that help them? Or, if we do buy there stuff so low, should we not brag about it? Is that the message here. Not that FB was bragging, just telling us of his good fortune. I would think that the more people that buy stuff will increrase demand and supply will suffer therefore increasing prices.
I have noticed that lobster is still around $7.99 per pound around Dover. I know cause I just got back to ME and started looking at the prices again.

the 7.99 retail explains it all

the lobsterman may be getting under 2.00lb to thier co-op or wholesaler, then it goes (shipped) to another wholesaler, then there's a retail margin


the price of bait, fuel, boats, equipments, keeps on rising,,,,and thiers no dental or health care benefits with this job, and thiers only a couple good months of lobstering, so they NEED to make a profit in a short amount of time to survive, year round,

[msina]

This is why I chose not to buy the lobster at a retail store. I know the lobstermen are getting very little and I thought the markup was ridiculous. I am told there is a "Blue truck" that buys directly from the lobstermen and fishermen selling and buying at a fair price. I will take my little bit of business to them.

[Casper1212]

If business is so bad that producers, ie, farmers and fishermen, have to cut their prices to the point where they aren't even making a profit, chances are that it's a case of something is better than nothing. And I'm sure they would rather sell at a loss than let the produce spoil. There's also the possibility that they have to cut prices because the markets are glutted.
I prefer to give my money directly to the people who worked for it, which is why I go to the farmer's market. Okay, I admit, it's fresher and less expensive and less likely to be covered in chemicals. But the way I look at is that there are benefits in it for me and the people who sell directly to the public.

[RMoore007]

Originally Posted by elston

If you misconstured or missed my point and thought I was advocating a boycott of produce....well you just missed my point entirely.

No, I didn't think that at all. Just talkin'. Trying to make sense of their plights.

I have an cousin in Norridgewock with a small farm. The best corn I've ever eaten. Eating there in the old farmhouse back in the 60's, I remember my grandfather would get up in the middle of a meal (feast) and take his pickup down to the fields to pick some fresh corn. To him, it had to be eaten within the hour.

Today, his son, my cousin, is running the farm and he's a little worried about the corn this year. He thinks it will be a little stunted but not too bad I guess. He just takes it in stride and plans the next crop. All he can do. Just a farmer through and through and couldn't imagine a different way to live. I watched him do some planting last May and got to watch all facets of the planting operation. I took some pictures and quick videos. It just amazes me. A city boy. And he has quite a few tractors. All have different uses and sizes. Some older than the hills. Some pretty new. All well kept and cared for. I always leave impressed by his work ethic. A real Maine farmer.